A cynical commentary about developments in the South African financial markets and the incomprehensible activities and pronouncements of bureaucrats and politicians.

Tuesday, 27 October 2015

LOTS OF LOSSES ALL ROUND

Last week our home became an entry in the nation’s
house break-in statistics. Fortunately, no one was home or harmed in the
mid-morning invasion which revealed that brute force can defeat even the costliest
and well installed security devices. The usual clutch of electronic goodies was
stolen including of course the laptop on which Tidemarks is crafted each week
and which hosted the mailing list of recipients. The necessary conversion to a
new computer operating system and recovery from some patchy backups has been
incredibly trying but here is a belated comment bashed out on a brand new
computer thingy.

Because of the aforementioned imperfect mailing list
reconstruction process this letter will be reaching people who may have never
seen Tidemarks before and unless you object, your name will remain on the list.
More complicated is the recovery of those names who were added to my list since
the last back up. If you recall asking me in the last six weeks or so to add a
friend or even an enemy, please just send me that request again.

And meanwhile, our poor nation was having its own
problems with revolting students. Some hyperbolic opinions have been aired but
it certainly seems possible that our leaders are paralysed with fear. No one
has emerged to be willing to confront the mobs and impose some discipline and
order. With so many in government, from Number 1 down, largely ignorant of
arithmetic, economics or indeed what universities are for, the rhetoric and
appalling hash tag sloganeering has not produced any sound and sensible debate.
The ruling party seems to be in panic mode and frantically trying to distance
themselves from government. An impossible task, as the two have been
inseparable for a couple of decades.

It appears that the tertiary education sector has now
joined the schools and most state-owned and operated enterprises on the scrap
heap of broken institutions. The desperation of young people to get into a
university is probably based on their earnest but misguided belief that a
degree is the sole route to employment. The number of powerful positions
occupied by people who have lied about their qualifications is testimony to
this. But actually peaceful competence in almost any field including just
driving a broom is a saleable skill. The cruel fact is that university is
indeed a privilege open to far fewer candidates than our dysfunctional school
leaving system promises. If student numbers were restricted to the truly worthy,
the university funding issues would diminish and scholarships, bursaries and
loans could operate as intended.

All of this submerged poor Finance Minister Nene’s
semi-annual trip to the parliamentary podium and any plans he might have for
allocating resources were trashed by just about everyone. It seems likely that
his peers will insist that he raises more tax from those who are so “obviously”
able to afford it. The air is thick with the noise of calculator buttons as the
pundits demonstrate yet again the impossibility of raising significant amounts
of money from insignificant fractions of the population. Retirement and
emigration has thinned the ranks of the so-called
previously advantaged male citizens that the socialists are so pleased to
bludgeon and blame. They are going have to find new and wealthier people to tax.

In the end the three-point shortfall was
heart-breaking for the ‘bokke and us fans. Unfortunately, the lads can’t even
come home now as they have to play that silly third place decider next weekend.